Journal
NEUROBIOLOGY OF AGING
Volume 33, Issue 5, Pages 867-877Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2010.08.015
Keywords
Mild cognitive impairment; PET; [C-11]MP4A; Acetylcholine esterase; Cholinergic system; Neuropsychological function; Memory; Kinetic modeling; Principal component analysis
Categories
Funding
- Marga and Walter Boll Foundation
- WDH Foundation
- EC-FP6-project DiMI (Diagnostic Molecular Imaging) [LSHB-CT-2005-512146]
- Alzheimer's Research Trust
- Alzheimers Research UK [ART-RF2008-1] Funding Source: researchfish
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Evidence for cholinergic dysfunction in very early stages of neurodegeneration like mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is inconclusive. Previous positron emission tomography (PET) studies based on small samples investigated if it is related to memory impairment. We examined whether cortical acetylcholine esterase (AChE) activity is reduced at this stage and correlated with cognitive function. N-[C-11]-methyl-4-piperidyl acetate ([11C]MP4A), a positron emission tomography tracer for measuring cerebral AChE activity in vivo, was applied in 21 controls and 17 MCI patients. Parametric images of AChE activity were analyzed using standard atlas regions. Principal components analysis (PCA) of regional values of AChE activity and correlation analysis with neuropsychological test results was performed. Cortical AChE activity showed a significant decline in MCI patients compared with controls which was most pronounced in temporal regions. They formed the main part of a principal component that was related significantly to verbal and nonverbal memory, language comprehension and executive function. Cholinergic dysfunction is an early hallmark even before onset of dementia at the clinical stage of MCI. Its impact especially on temporal neocortex is associated with impaired neuropsychological function. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available